A top OPEC leader yesterday defiantly warned the United States and other rich countries they’d better get used to the “fair” prices they’re now paying for oil.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vowed to push fellow oil-cartel nations to “strengthen the organization [and] obtain fair prices for oil” at a rare summit this week – just days after President Clinton said the United States would try to end-run soaring costs by dipping into its own reserves.

“The thing is that for a century, [consumer countries] took millions of barrels of oil at giveaway prices. That’s part of the problem – they got into bad habits,” Chavez griped in his weekly radio address.

“We’ve set a price of between $22 and $28 a barrel as a fair price for the moment – but we’ll have to adjust that as well in the future.”

Saudi Arabian finance official Hamad Al-Sayari added that energy-eating Europe has heaped on added costs to the oil by heavily taxing its petroleum products.

“There is a direct result of overtaxation by European governments,” Al-Sayari contended. “Indeed, it is the price at the pump, not at the well.”

Oil prices are now at their highest level in a decade, leaving heavy-user nations, such as the United States, sweating over what to expect next as they head into winter.

The issue continued to be front and center in the U.S. presidential race yesterday.

Dick Cheney, the former oil executive now running with Texas Gov. George W. Bush, said the Clinton administration had “no energy policy” and was using the oil reserve to aid Vice President Al Gore.

Cheney noted that Gore, who is proud of his environmental credentials, in the past advocated jacking up the price of gasoline to convince Americans to use less of it.